Companies and employees
Founded Employees In Iceland
Betware 1998 92 54
CCP 1997 400 220
Gogogic 2006 16 16
Mind Games 2009 2 2
On the Rocks 2002 43 10
Sauma
2004 18 5
Ymir mobile
2008 5 5
576 312

Gaming industry employees 2008

And we're hiring
120 to 180 jobs in
next 12-18 months
...again, mostly CCP and BetWare

Icelandic Gaming Industry Turnover 2009
ISK 10.000.000.000 *
*CCP 9, BetWare 1 and some change ...

...ergo
It takes 10 years to
make millions

Recognition
• CCP - Global MMO leader with dozens of awards, world
record simultaneous players and growing
• Betware - Vaxtasproti 2008,Clients in Iceland, Denmark,
Sweden, Spain and Canada
• Gogogic Nordic Game Awards nomiat Symbol6
• On the Rocks - Legion of Amon No1 Most Anticipated by
AppGamer
• MindGames was one of the top 10 finalists in the innovit
2009 Gulleggið competition

State of play in the States
Computer and Video Game Industry Tops $22 Billion in 2008 29. Jan 2008 ESA
 U.S. computer and video game software sales grew six percent in 2007 to $9.5 billion –
more than tripling industry software sales since 1996. S
 Sixty-five percent of American households play computer or video games.
 The average game player is 35 years old and has been playing games for 13 years.
 The average age of the most frequent game purchaser is 40 years old.
 Forty percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18
represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33 percent) than
boys age 17 or younger (18 percent).
 In 2008, 26 percent of Americans over the age of 50 played video games, an increase
from nine percent in 1999.
 Thirty-six percent of heads of households play games on a wireless device, such as a
cell phone or PDA, up from 20 percent in 2002.

Quebec success story
• Game industry subsidies since Number of Employees
1996
• Professional game education
started 2000
• More than 500 titles created
• Generic R&D tax credits return
rate 20-35%.
• Montreal subsidises 30-37.5% of
games companies’ salaries for 5
years
• Income tax holidays for foreign
experts of 75% for 5 years.

Prince Edward Island
• Population: 140.000
• Gaming industry: 100+
• Aiming for 500 in 5 years
• 52.5% tax rebate
• Tax credits processed weekly

Finland
• Tekes offers grants for R&D, and industry exports. Tekes
also has demo funding for games.
• Finnvera (national financing company) offers non-games-
specific loan guarantees.
• The Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture (AVEK) has a
small demo fund for games.
• POEM (The Northern Film and Media Foundation) offers
non-game-specific funding for game projects.

Games industry in Finland

France
• National games production tax credit (CIJV) covers 20% of
most production costs on games that pass a cultural test.
• National Video Game Fund (FAJV) funds up to 35% of
game prototypes.
• R&D tax credits (CIR) rebate 5% of R&D expenditure
• Paris has the publicly funded £220m venture fund which
currently funds 8 games projects out of a total of 100
candidates.

Applicable game development funding

Based on
http://www.hermia.fi/neogames/

www.igi.is